Georgia high school shooting suspect Colt Gray changes plea to guilty, now faces life in prison
The 16-year-old charged with killing two students and two teachers during a 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia now faces life in prison after he entered a guilty plea Friday.
Colt Gray, who previously pleaded not guilty last October, entered the new plea Friday without reaching a deal with prosecutors. Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult with 55 total counts, including murder in the four deaths and 25 counts of aggravated assault. His trial had been scheduled to start in mid-October.
Teachers Richard "Ricky" Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the September 2024 shooting in Barrow County, about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.
Shayna Aspinwall, Richard Aspinwall's wife, told the judge on Friday that the "grief of losing him is constant" and lamented that the lives of their daughters, who were 2 and 5 when their father died, will be "forever marked by his absence."
Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son Mason was killed, told the judge she does not forgive Colt Gray. She said that while adults around him missed multiple warning signs, he was the one who decided to bring a gun to school and to pull the trigger.
"Those decisions were his and his alone," she said.
She described her son as someone who "made people that were typically unseen feel seen, accepted and safe" and said she was confident he would have befriended Colt Gray if he'd had the chance.
"Mason deserved a future and we all deserved a future with Mason in it, and Colt took that from Mason and everyone who loved him," she said. She and two of Mason's sisters asked the judge for a sentence of life without parole.
Before accepting the plea, Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm asked Gray a series of questions meant to ensure that the teenager was aware of the consequences of his plea and was entering it voluntarily. To each question, Gray responded, "Yes, your honor."
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Because he pleaded guilty to murder, Gray faces a minimum sentence of life in prison, according to The Associated Press. The judge must decide whether he should be eligible for parole after hearing victim statements, evidence and each side's summary of the case.
Gray sat at a table in the courtroom with his feet chained together next to his attorney. Members of the community, including some victims and family members, were present in the courtroom.
A jury in March convicted his father, Colin Gray, of charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and he is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
Prosecutors successfully argued that Colin Gray provided his son with the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack as a Christmas gift, continued buying him ammunition, despite being aware of his mental health deterioration and prior school shooting threats investigated by law enforcement.
The prosecution told jurors that despite those concerns, Gray did not pursue inpatient treatment for his son.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.